Friday, December 1, 2017

I recently purchased an undated 20th century, Spanish tile catalog: Catalogo de Azulejos de Estilo Sevillano, and I wanted to share the wonderful tile photos with everyone via this blog. The catalog, however, posed a mystery. Most of the 18 color plates had the name and address of Jose Ma[ria] Fernandez (Reyes Catolicos, 25, Sevilla) pasted over another name and address. That other name and address was Casa González, Gran Via 14, Madrid, and I wanted to know what Casa Gonzalez was, as well as who or what Jose Ma. Fernandez was, along with the history of the “Estilo Sevillano” tiles pictured in the catalog. I received help from Mario Baeck, doctor of art science at Ghent University, Belgium,(1) and Johan Kamermans, curator of the Dutch Tile Museum in Otterlo. Professor Baeck pointed me to a Spanish website that specialized in the history of Spain’s ceramic industry that focused on tiled altar pieces, Retablo Ceramico, and Dr. Kamermans sent me contact information for ceramic tile experts in Spain.

The Jose Ma. Fernandez catalog is the one I purchased and the Casa González cover is courtesy of Retablo Ceramico. Both have a “G” under a crown--probably for Casa González. The Fernandez label is pasted over a Casa González printed title.

The history of the Sevillano style of decorative ceramics begins with Francesco Niculoso, an Italian painter of majolica who, in 1498, settled in Seville. At this time--at the end of the Middle Ages--Seville was a major center of ceramic production and was rooted in the Hispano-Muslim tradition.(2)At the beginning of the 16th century, it was “emigre potters from northern Italy [...who] introduced the MAIOLICA technique to Spain, France and Flanders, whence it spread to Portugal, Holland (where it was known as Delft) and finally England. ...By the end of the [15th] century Italian potters had established a long tradition of painted images of great variety, executed in bright polychromatic schemes on single tiles, having absorbed many technical influences from Spain[,...such as the lustre technique].”(3)Francesco Niculoso was called Niculoso Pisano because he was from Pisa. “He introduced [into] Spain the Pisan majolica technique and brilliantly applied it to azulejos. Until then, mono-chromatic tiles were cut and assembled, the colours were bright and applied with a uniform intensity. With the new Italian majolica style, tiles [were] painted like a wood panel or a canvas.

“And a variety of colours [were] used: blue, light yellow, dark yellow, green, brown, white, black, purple[… .] What [was] particularly revolutionary [was] the use of chiaroscuro, a use of contrasts of colours to achieve a sense of volume. From an almost industrial repetition of patterns, we [moved] onto an artistic creation…,”(4) which culminated in a neo-renaissance, Sevillano style in the late 19th century.

Hans van Lemmen, the author of the book,5000 Years of Tilespublished by the British Museum Press, read this blog post and kindly sent a photo of the head of the tile panel, above, where it was signed by Niculoso Pisano. The photo had to be taken with the camera poking through the iron bars. The entire panel could not be photographed in this way at one time.

Niculoso lived in Seville for about thirty years and died in 1529. In that time he not only introduced the flat surface tile, but the decorative repertoire of grutescos.(5) Niculoso is also “attributed with introducing the ‘paleta de gran fuego’--[...pottery painted with a large fire palette, the technical definition of Renaissance Italian majolica]--technique of polychrome ceramic manufacture to Spain, which allowed for a fine, artistic and detailed painted [tile] to be produced. [...He introduced] the concept of a ceramic painting which reproduced entire pictures by means of a composition of ceramic tiles[,...such as the tiled...Sepulcral Lauda of Iñigo de López in the Parish church of Santa Ana, Sevilla (1503)].(6) Niculoso “was ahead of his times, however, and on his death in 1529 the fashion reverted to the traditional moulded (arista) tiles[,…]”(7) thus creating a lull in the production of painted tile panels. Then, “[in] the middle of the sixteenth century new Italian and Flemish influences arrived [...in Seville with] the Pesaro family from Genoa and Frans Andries, later known as Francisco Andrea, from Antwerp, who reinstituted brush painting techniques in bright colors on ceramic panels and dishes, with clear Renaissance connotations [as] opposed to the Mudejar [style].”(8)

"These [tiled panel] sockets have been considered of the most important of this sort existing in Spain, they reflect flowers; birds; fantastic animals; Warriors;...and a thousand precursors of the [decorative ceramics] art... ." They were made for the Seville Alcazar by the famous ceramist, Cristóbal de Augusta, who was the son of another famous ceramist of the same name, and the son-in-law of Roque Hernández, mentioned below. (http://www.retabloceramico.net/bio_augustacritobalde.htm)

It has been speculated that the families of Frans Andries (Francisco Andrea) and Francesco Niculoso Pisano were related. After Andries settled in the Triana district of Seville, he signed a contract with the ceramist Roque Hernández in which he would paint tiles in the “Pisa” style, rather than in the Mudejar styles, such as "edge" or "dry rope" (i.e., cuenca[9] and cuerda seca[10]). In addition, he would teach the Pisa style to Roque Hernández, and to others in his workshop. Other authors have recognized that Francisco Andrea brought to Seville for the second time the technique of majolica, implying a previous disappearance of this specialty in ceramics in Seville for several years.(11)Other sources of the Renaissance style came from Genoa, Italy with the arrival in Seville of potters such as Tomaso Pesaro. By 1574 Pesaro employed other Italians and Sevillian potters in his workshop. “The wares they made echoed the styles of 16th-century Italian Maiolica. Native Spaniards were quick to imitate the style, as seen in the rich tiled decoration in the Alcazar (1577-9) and other schemes… .”(12)Beginning in the 16th century, Seville’s position as a major port and trading center for the Spanish Americas helped expand Seville’s pottery industry. In the 17th century Seville prospered with the increased demand for wares. Craftsmen began to specialize and “...the chief production was of azulejos, which could be combined to create tile-pictures depicting hunting scenes, scenes from the lives of the saints influenced by Delft tiles or tile panels with blue-and-white...ornament resembling wrought iron work. ...In the 18th century the most interesting earthenware produced in the Triana district of Seville was influenced by Chinese export wares, decorated with flowers and leaves, pagodas and cranes[,…and in the] 19th century English-style transfer printing was introduced[... into Seville].”(13)In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there was a revival of Renaissance-style, decorated tiles and tile panels. Numerous family-owned ceramic factories operated in Seville--especially in the Triana district--some had been there for hundreds of years. Many artists took part in the decoration and making of architectural tile works, and some, especially in the 20th century, acquired academic training in the Fine Arts curriculum of universities.(14)Some of Casa González’ contemporaries (factories/workshops) in Seville during the first half of the 20th century were:(15)

Corbato García, Manuel. Factory (1908) Laffitte Romero, José. Fca. Nta. Mrs. del Rocío (1930)Mensaque Rodríguez y Cía. (1919)Mensaque and Vera, Jose (1910)Montalván, Factory (1940), García-Montalván García-Montalván, ManuelMontero Asquith, Manuel (1920s)Our Lady of the Old (1928), (Martinez and Rodriguez)Ramos Rejano, Manuel (ppos decade 1920)Los Remedios, Factory (1924)Rodríguez Díaz y Hermano (1930s)Rodríguez Pérez de Tudela, Manuel (1920) Santa Ana, Factory (circa 1930)Tova Villalva, Widow (1930s)Widow of Gómez, Factory (1896)While there was no information to be found about Jose Ma. Fernandez, there was some information about Casa González, which initially published the tile catalog illustrated below. “Casa González, Casa González Álvarez-Ossorio or González Hermanos is the family name of a family business that began with the production and sale of building materials around 1902 in Seville, on the initiative of José González y Álvarez Ossorio, the oldest of the six children of the marriage formed by D. José González Espejo and Ms. Catalina Álvarez-Ossorio y Pizarro. This was the sister of Dona Dolores Álvarez-Ossorio, mother of Don Torcuato Luca de Tena, founder of the ABC Newspaper. The family residence was always in the center of the city of Seville… . It was a family well-placed and well connected with the social, cultural and artistic environment of the time.

“[...Another son of this marriage was] Aníbal González y Álvarez-Ossorio[,…]an outstanding Sevillian architect who bequeathed to the city of Seville emblematic monuments and buildings built around the Ibero-American Exhibition held in [Seville] in 1929, within the period known as regionalism, characterized mainly...by the use of carved brick and artistic and decorative ceramics.”(16)

A commercial facade made by Casa González in 1926, located at Plaza La Plazuela, 20, Seville. The tiles were painted by the artist Antonio Martín Bermudo (Campitos). (Photo credit: Jesús Marín García (2012),http://retabloceramico.net/5857.htm)

In 1929 Seville hosted the Ibero-American Exposition. “The...Exposition was held...to increase the ties between host Spain, Portugal and their former colonies. ...The centerpiece and administrative office of the world fair was the Plaza de España, designed by the Spanish architect Anibal González, who was [...the brother of the owner of Casa González]. Today the structure is occupied by government offices and by the general office of the regional army. The Plaza de España is a harmonious complex in a typical regional revival style, which was very popular at the time.(17) The red brick structure is decorated with colorful painted ceramic tiles. ...The showpiece[...of the Plaza,] however[,] is the series of fifty-eight benches that line the facade of the main structure. The benches, completely covered with panels of azulejos, depict allegorical paintings representing the provinces of Spain.”(18)

Many of the ceramics workshops and factories were contracted to design and build these benches. Casa González submitted the drawing below for one of the benches in the Plaza de España, and was commissioned to design part of the ceramic installations in the Plaza.

According to the Retablo Ceramico website, the catalog pictured at the beginning of this article was published in about 1930. Casa González continued in business during and after the 1930s, but not as a distinct family affair. Different family members controlled the various branches, and by 1951 the main branch in Seville became the home for the artist, Cayetano González Gómez, who would set up his goldsmith's workshop in the Pagés del Corro street in the district of Triana in Seville, which was then the premises of the family’s ceramics business. As mentioned above, it is not known when Jose Ma. Fernandez issued the Casa González catalog under the Fernandez name--it is thought sometime in the 1930s, nor is the relationship of the Fernandez and González businesses known.(19)The c1930s catalog of Sevillian-style azulejos is reproduced below:

NOTES: 1 Professor Baeck has done significant research and has published many papers about the European tile industry. 2 A Google translation of Claire Dumortier, “Frans Andries, Ceramista de Amberes in Sevilla”; http://institucional.us.es/revistas/arte/08/03%20dumortier.pdf. 3 Garry Cruikshank & Eduardo Gonzalez, “A History of Tiles in Spain, Part II, Paradise Lost”, Tile Today, May-July, 1998, p. 74. 4 A Google translation of http://azulejos.fr/index_en.html. 5 Grutesco (from grotesque Italian , and east of grotta - " grotto " -) is a decorative motif derived from the decoration of the "caves" discovered in fifteenth-century Rome and subsequently identified as rooms and corridors of the Domus Aurea… . They were widely used in Renaissance art and spread throughout Europe. It consists of the combination of plant elements ("foliages", garlands ), vessels, cornucopias , pananoplias , human and teriomorphic figures ("bichas",centaurs , satyrs , putti ), fantastic animals and mythological beings ("sabandijas", "chimeras"), mascarones, bucráneos, etc., which are capriciously related and fill in profuse space (horror vacui) in symmetrical compositions. (a translation of https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grutesco)

Examples of grutescos from the Wikipedia article above.

6 Garry Cruikshank & Eduardo Gonzalez, “A History of Tiles in Spain, Part II, Paradise Lost”, Tile Today, May-July, 1998, p. 74. 7 Gordon Campbell, ed., The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Volume II, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2006, p. 333. 8 A Google translation of an article by Ana María Moreno Fernández for a symposium on June 8, 2013, Start a journey (III); “Triana and the ceramic workshops”, downloaded from the website of the Niculoso Pisano Asociacion Amigos de la Ceramica on September 22, 2017. 9 “The CUENCA technique required the design to be pressed into the green clay with a mould that left a raised outline, delimiting the areas to be glazed. The tile was then biscuit fired, after which the holloes were filled with coloured glazes and refired.” (Garry Cruikshank & Eduardo Gonzalez, “A History of Tiles in Spain, Part II, Paradise Lost”, Tile Today, May-July, 1998, p. 74). 10 “CUERDA SECA was a technique developed in the Middle East and introduced to Spain in the 15th century in an attempt to solve the problem of combining several colors on a single tile without the glazes bleeding into each other… . CUERDA SECA...may be considered as the negative version of CUENCA. It consists of engraving the design into the clay [while] it is wet, and filling the furrows with a compound of grease and iron oxide. Different colored glazes were them applied. During the firing the greasy lines kept the colours apart and at the same time produced the effect of a relief.” (Garry Cruikshank & Eduardo Gonzalez, “A History of Tiles in Spain, Part II, Paradise Lost”, Tile Today, May-July, 1998, p. 74). 11 A Google translation of Claire Dumortier, “Frans Andries, Ceramista de Amberes in Sevilla”; http://institucional.us.es/revistas/arte/08/03%20dumortier.pdf. 12 Gordon Campbell, ed., The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Volume II, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2006, p. 333. 13 Ibid. 14 A liberal translation of Martin Carlos Palomo García, “Painters Potters , Potters , factories and workshops”; http://retabloceramico.net/autores.htm. 15 http://retabloceramico.net/firmasfabricas.htm16 A liberal translation of http://retabloceramico.net/bio2_gonzalezcasa.htm. 17 Gonzalez chose bricks as the main material to be used, in combination with tiles and marble columns. The building's style today is called Sevillian Regionalism. (http://www.sevilla5.com/monuments/plespana.html) 18 http://www.aviewoncities.com/seville/plazadeespana.htm 19 A liberal translation of http://retabloceramico.net/bio2_gonzalezcasa.htm

*****

LINKS TO MY PAST BLOG ARTICLES

"Bits and Pieces: Updates for the Lever House, the Kesner Building and 2116 Ditmas Avenue, Brooklyn" and an obituary for Robert Pinart

This is a non-commercial, educational blog. Content is compiled/written by Michael Padwee and all opinions expressed herein are my own, or quoted, and are offered without intending to harm any person or company.

I fact-check as carefully as possible before posting and try diligently to cite sources of text and photos that are not my own.

I reserve the right to edit content—either add or delete material—as I see fit.

If you find a broken link on this blog, please contact me at mpadwee'at'gmail.com.

I do not accept anything of value to write about products or businesses. If I recommend a product or a company, it is strictly not for profit.

Permission is granted to link back to this site. In fact, link backs are appreciated.

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Wednesday, November 1, 2017

We are saddened to report that our friend, stained and dalle de verre glass artist Robert Pinart, died on October 1.

Robert Pinart in Chartres, 1950s

Robert had been in deteriorating health for some time, and after ninety years his body was laid to rest in Gethsemane Cemetery in Congers, New York. His spirit and art will live on, however, in the stained and dalle de verre glass windows he designed for synagogues, churches, schools and residences throughout the United States and Canada.

BITS AND PIECES

Every so often I receive a message about one of my blogs. Usually, someone has new information about a subject I’ve written about that significantly adds to that conversation. Below are two of these updates, and a third piece about a building that relates to a previous blog.

In my article about the mid-century modern ceramic tile artist, Jean Nison, I mentioned that she was commissioned to create a tile installation in the Lever Brother’s Boardroom in New York City’s landmarked Lever Building. According to Nison, she visited decorators, left tiles with them and hoped they would call her. This was how, she believed, Raymond Lowey Associates, the industrial design firm, asked her to make a wall decoration for Lever House, at that time the headquarters of Lever Brothers Corporation (now Unilever). I contacted the curator of the Lever House Art Collection, Mr. Richard Marshall, but he had no information about the fate of Nison's tile installation. Unilever Corporation moved out of the building in the 1980s, and may have taken the tiles with them. A request to Unilever for information, however, went unanswered.

After reading my article, the Chief Curator of the Mobile (AL) Museum of Art, Paul Richelson, contacted me. Two tiles from the Boardroom Fireplace in Lever House had been donated to the Mobile Museum by Eric M. and Joy Hart in 2005. Either these were extra tiles that were not used in the installation, or the installation was removed when Unilever moved from Lever House to Connecticut and tiles were boxed and given to some of the executives. In either case, tiles from this installation may still exist.

To prove my point, a recent ebay auction listed a “replica” boxed tile of one of the donated Lever Brothers' fireplace tiles. Nison must have made extras to sell at Lever House as the box indicates.

The Restoration of the Hartford Faience Tiles on the Kesner Building (695-709 Sixth Avenue)

The photos I used in my June 2015 blog were taken in 2000 and 2010, and many tiles were in poor condition--some even with holes drilled through them.

I again passed by the Kesner Building in 2014, and much of the street-level facade was obscured by ongoing construction. At that time I thought that whatever was happening would only further destroy the tilework on the facade. I was wrong!

The Sixth Avenue entrance to the Kesner Building with two pier columns of restored tiles.

"A restoration team from Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc. [...restored] the facade of 105 W 22nd Street/695-709 Sixth Avenue. Xsusha Flandro, Senior Conservator, was kind enough to explain the process:'The tiles are glazed ceramic tiles manufactured by the Hartford Faience Company... . The current building was erected in phases between 1889 and 1911. The tiles are ca. 1913 when Chicago business man J.L. Kesner (hence the 'K' on the tile columns) leased the building and submitted plans for alteration to the first floor store fronts. Oddly enough Kesner was never in the building as he backed out of the lease, but since the construction plans were already submitted the Ehrich Brothers (owners of the building) went through with the building plans and completed the tile columns. The building is a contributing member to the Ladies Mile Historic District.'A lot of prep work goes into the restoration of tiles. The first thing we did were cleaning tests. We completed small cleaning test samples and then based on results proceeded with the most gentle and effective of the cleaners tested to clean all the tiles. We also tested paint strippers (all pH neutral – not acidic and not alkaline – because harsh strippers can damage the glazes) in the same manner as the cleaners because some columns had graffiti and general over paint. After cleaning and paint removal we moved into removing abandoned anchors (where signage and such had been attached over the years). Then we moved into patching. We utilized a repair system manufactured by Edison Coatings out of Connecticut. Edison Coatings provided us with custom colored patch repair material for each color of glaze, after the patching was complete the patches are sanded and shaped to the correct profile, and then in-painted (only painted where the patch is) using a polyurethane paint system (also by Edison Coatings) custom colored to the glazes on the tiles. This is where the artistry comes in and we blend the colors onsite to match the adjacent historic tile glazes. No coating is placed over the work after we are finished, as everything we use is specifically manufactured for outdoor use.

'In this project we are conserving nine tile columns. All missing tiles or tiles which we could not successfully conserve are being replaced with custom tiles, manufactured by Shenfeld Studios, to match the existing. It took us approximately three weeks to complete all the conservation work on site. The replacement tiles are still a few months out.'Ms. Flandro noted that the work requires extensive training.'To be an architectural conservator you have to have a Master’s degree in Historic Preservation – and usually in the conservation sector of historic preservation, which is where you gain a lot of your materials knowledge. Similar to how art conservators go through school and then specialize in one material, we go through school and specialize in building materials. In our company in order to progress past junior conservator we are required to apply to be a Professional Associate with the American Institute of Conservation (of which I hold PA status and the owner of Jablonski Building Conservation, Mary Jablonski, is a Fellow.) AIC – Professional Associate requires at very least 3 years’ experience and your previous projects/works are peer reviewed and letters of recommendation are required.'”(1)

2116 Ditmas Avenue, Brooklyn

(Clockwise from UL) 2116 Ditmas Avenue facade; main entrance; painted tilework on both sides of entrance(2); from foyer looking into the lobby. (Photo credits: Michael Padwee)

Recently, while on an errand in the East Flatbush and Ditmas Park sections of Brooklyn, I passed by an apartment house that caught my eye because of some architectural elements on its facade, parts of which had been painted over. On closer inspection of the entranceway I saw what looked like 12” x 12” tiles, which had also been partially obscured by paint. The building had been constructed in 1935 according to New York City records, but there was no indication of an architect.

I entered the ground floor foyer and lobby, both of which had tile floors, as well as other wall decorations.

Five interior decorative wall elements in the building lobby. The column separating the two niches echoes the column and windows decoration on the facade. (Photos: Michael Padwee)

The foyer and lobby floors were composed mainly of hexagonal tiles with square and rectangular border tiles. There were at least seven hexagonal designs interspersed throughout the floors.

Some of the hexagonal insert tiles above were previously identified as Batchelder tiles in my October 1, 2013 blog post, “Ernest Batchelder in Manhattan”.

Ernest Batchelder's tile company in Pasadena, California, and later, Los Angeles, produced many craftsman-style tiles that were used in building construction throughout the country. I wrote of the use of Batchelder floor tiles in Manhattan apartment buildings, and published an article about the tiles in the RKO Keith's theater in Flushing, Queens in my October 2013 blog. I suspect there are many more such buildings throughout the city as Batchelder did have a showroom in Manhattan for architects and the construction industry, among others.NOTES:

(1) http://www.newyorkitecture.com/restoration-in-progress/. Permission to reprint Ms. Flandro's remarks granted by Mary Jablonski, the president and founder of Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc.(2) This 12” square tile is Stock #97, page 18 in Batchelder Tiles: A Catalog of Hand Made Tiles, Batchelder-Wilson Company, Los Angeles, California, Fourth Edition, 1923. (Reprinted by the Tile Heritage Foundation in the 1990s.)AcknowledgementsMy thanks to the following for their help with these articles: Paul Richelson, Chief Curator of the Mobile (AL) Museum of Art; Mary Jablonski, Executive Director of the Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc.; Robert Shenfeld of Shenfeld Studios.

The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company and the Beginnings of Polychrome Terra Cotta Useread more...Bits and Pieces: The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and following up on the James N. Gamble House and the Charles Volkmar Overmantle Mural

This is a non-commercial, educational blog. Content is compiled/written by Michael Padwee and all opinions expressed herein are my own, or quoted, and are offered without intending to harm any person or company.

I fact-check as carefully as possible before posting and try diligently to cite sources of text and photos that are not my own.

I reserve the right to edit content—either add or delete material—as I see fit.

If you find a broken link on this blog, please contact me at mpadwee'at'gmail.com.

I do not accept anything of value to write about products or businesses. If I recommend a product or a company, it is strictly not for profit.

Permission is granted to link back to this site. In fact, link backs are appreciated.

Offensive comments or spam will be deleted. I reserve the right to decide what is considered offensive.

I am not responsible, nor will I be held liable, for blog comments. Writers of comments take full responsibility for their content.

I reserve the right to remove comments asking for appraisals or trying to sell items. (Click on "comments" in the section below to leave a comment.)